News for all those interested in Indiana genealogy. See our site at IndGenSoc.org.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Marriage Indexing: Type Only What You See

The cardinal rule to indexing historical records is TYPE ONLY WHAT YOU SEE.

The ONLY exception to that is when a state has been abbreviation, please spell it out!

If the number of marriages says 'One' on the document, then you type 'One.' If it says '1,' then that is what you type -- '1.' For race, if it says 'White,' then that is ACTUALLY what you type, but if it only says 'W,' then that is what you type. DO NOT ADD your own interpretation of what is meant. How you interpret it today may not be what was meant when the document was created. We cannot CHANGE an historical document -- ONLY TYPE WHAT YOU SEE.

And thank you to all the great indexers and arbitrators who are hanging in there with us to see these records finally become available -- soon we hope!